Strange Bedfellows: Pelosi Applauds Trump's Tariffs on China

Please consider Democrat-led House seen backing Trump’s China trade war, scrutinizing talks with allies.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who made a pitch to return as speaker on Wednesday, has applauded Trump’s initial round of tariffs on China as a “leverage point” to negotiate fairer trade for U.S. products in the country.

Trump has signaled in the past week that he believes a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping is achievable. The two are due to meet on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit at the end of November.

If things do not go well, he has threatened to impose tariffs on about $267 billion worth of remaining Chinese imports to the United States. Currently, 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of products are scheduled to rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1, 2019.

“House Democrats are the most protectionist group in Congress,” said Derek Scissors, a China scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. If Trump makes a deal that fails to achieve significant changes to China’s practices, “they’ll jump all over him,” he said.

Canada Upset Over Trade Agreement Changes

In other tariff news, Canada at Odds with U.S. Changes to Text of Trade Deal.

Canada is pushing back against U.S. attempts to change the text of a recently concluded trade pact and the issue may have to be referred to ministers to settle, a Canadian source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

“Some of the stuff they (the Americans) have been putting forward is not at all what we agreed to. So some of it may have to come up to the ministerial level before it gets resolved,” said the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

Real World

Meanwhile, in the real world, Soybeans Pile Up, So Do Worries of Bean Rot.

Also note the Tariff Scorecard: 57 Companies Bitch About Trump's Tariffs, 7 Give Positive View

In the perverse way in which government "works", when both sides agree, they are typically both wrong.